ADDAMEER Fact Sheet Palestinians detained by Israel. THE PALESTINIAN PRISONERS DETAINED BY ISRAEL. Sin ce the beginning of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories in 1967, over 800,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israel. This forms approximately.

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As of August 20124,660Palestinian political prisoners are being held in Israeli prisons.On 18 October 2011, 477 prisoners were released as part of an exchange which also saw the release that same day of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was held by captured in Gaza in 2006. Out of this number, 205 were transferred to the Gaza Strip or abroad. Another 550 Palestinian prisoners were released as part of the deal in December 2011.

The army is not obliged to inform the detainee's family of their arrest or the location of their detention.

Up until August 2012, a Palestinian could be detained for up to 8 days without the Israeli military informing the detainee of the reason for his/her arrest and without being brought before a judge. A new amendment changed this period to 4 days, but it remains to be seen whether or not this will improve the treatment of prisoners in the initial period following arrest.

Prior to the new amendment in August 2012, a Palestinian detainee could be interrogated for a total period of 188 days, during which he/she can also be denied lawyer visits for a period of 90 days. The current law states that a Palestinian detainee can now be interrogated for 90 days, and denied lawyer visits for 60 days.

During the interrogation period, a detainee is often subjected to some form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment ranging in extremity, whether physical or psychological. Indeed, the isolation and solitary confinement of prisoners is regularly used as a form of psychological torture. The use of practices that constitute torture during interrogation has been outlawed within the Israeli judicial system; however, it is permitted in individual cases in which the Israeli Security Agency (ISA) deems a detainee a threat to state security or a ‘ticking bomb’. In some instance detainees have died while in custody as a result of torture.

Administrative detention is based on secret information brought forward during military tribunals, to which neither the detainee nor his/her lawyer have access to.

Administrative detention is indefinitely renewable under military regulations. A detainee may be given an administrative detention order for a period of between 1 – 6 months, after which the order may be renewed again.

In 2007, Israeli authorities suspended all family visits to prisoners from Gaza.

In 2009, the Israeli High Court of Justice rejected an appeal against this policy.

Following the hunger strike agreement of May 2012, Israel agreed to resume family visits from Gaza. However, as of the end of August, only 221 of the 449 prisoners from the Gaza Strip had received family visits.

Beatings, insults, threats, sexual harassment and humiliation are techniques used by Israeli interrogators to intimidate Palestinian women and coerce them into giving confessions.

In prison, degrading and intrusive body searches often occur during transfers to court hearings and can sometimes take place in the middle of the night as a punitive measure.

Between 2003–2008, there were four cases of women giving birth in Israeli detention. Pregnant prisoners transferred to the hospital to give birth are typically chained to their beds until they enter delivery rooms and shackled once again minutes after delivery.

On 27 September 2011, parts of the prisoner population announced a hunger strike, in protest at the worsening conditions inside the prisons, and demanding an end to the use of isolation, the full reinstatement of education and access to books, an end to the practice of shackling to and from family and lawyer visits, and the removal of short time limits placed on family visits. By mid-October, at least 2,000 prisoners had joined the campaign.

Israeli prison authorities responded with a number of punitive measures, which included putting hunger strikers into isolation, denial of salt – a vital nutrient for the hunger strikers – and denial of lawyer visits.

On 18 October the hunger strike was suspended after Israel announced it would meet the prisoners’ demands and stop the use of isolation. At the beginning of November, 20 prisoners reportedly still remained in isolation, and other restrictions continued to be imposed on the prisoners.

Following the historic individual hunger strikes of administrative detainees such as Khader Adnan and Hana Shalabi beginning in December 2011, Palestinian prisoners launched another mass hunger strike on 17 April 2012, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day. At the height of the hunger strike, over 2,000 prisoners were estimated to be on hunger strike. The IPS imposed harsh punishments on hunger strikers.

Prisoners’ demands included: an end to the IPS’ abusive use of isolation for “security” reasons; an end to Israel’s use of administrative detention; and a repeal of punitive measures taken against them following the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, including the denial of family visits for all Gaza prisoners since 2007.

On 14 May, the committee of prisoners representing the hunger strikers reached an agreement with Israeli authorities to end the 28-day hunger strike. In the agreement, Israel agreed to remove from isolation the 19 prisoners in long-term isolation, to resume family visits to prisoners from Gaza and West Bank families who were previously denied, to form a committee to improve basic conditions for the prisoners, and to limit the use of administrative detention.

As of 30 August, there remain 2 prisoners in long-term isolation. Furthermore, only 221 of the 449 Gaza prisoners have received family visits. The administrative detention policy remains unchanged, and former hunger strikers received renewals on their orders, causing two, Samer Al-Barq and Hassan Safadi, to re-launch their hunger strikes. An additional prisoner, Ayman Sharawna, who was released in the exchange deal and later re-arrested, also remains on hunger strike.